ABACUS/Transactions platform can unlock a strategic advantage

Santander Consumer Bank (SCB) is a foremost provider of banking and financial products and services in Germany. With a history dating back to 1957, the bank is a core subsidiary of Banco Santander, one of the largest financial groups in the world. SCB serves around 6.1 million customers and is a market leader in financing durables, auto and consumer loans.

Objectives of the project

On March 2016, the European Central Bank’s Money Market Statistical Reporting (MMSR) called on financial institutions to move from a template to a transaction reporting system. This regulatory change radically compressed the timelines for standard reporting, even as the bar was raised on data quality and quantity – more of it had to be processed, and at a more granular level. Consequently, SCB and its peers were now facing troublesome risk management considerations.

In addition, for SCB’s business practices and systems, MMSR requirements had operational ramifications. SCB’s leadership quickly realized an application platform was needed that:

had the dexterity to handle future regulatory changes as well as internal alignment with the business.

What BearingPoint did

How did the teams revitalize SCB’s compliance strategy?

Under tight time pressure, we engaged with Isban’s multidisciplinary teams to define their business requirements and translate them in IT terms.

Next, we integrated our Abacus application to SCB’s banking system, starting with the design of a data interface that would permit Isban’s vast data-troves to be loaded and processed by Abacus.

We also enriched some data that wasn’t yet in a form Abacus could read, and adapted diverse in-house processes and systems to ensure a clean integration with Abacus.

To be successful, these tasks demanded a major collaborative effort, and agile methods and ongoing communication would be key. So, the teams followed a defined process chain: teams worked in small sprints so we could test and develop iteratively, while also shrinking the waiting times of other teams. And we were in regular contact, communicating and training together daily.

Measurable & concrete results

Santander Consumer Bank is now legally compliant for MMSR. ABACUS/Transactions was deployed with lightning speed, which ensured the daily, automatic and stable delivery of MMSR obligations. This is significant because failure to comply would incur a penalty, but also register a vote of no-confidence in SCB’s regulatory procedures.

It is also well-prepared for the future. SCB can now respond swiftly as new reporting rules emerge because our Abacus teams are always scanning the regulatory environment. So, when changes are afoot, Santander will already have in place the framework, along with the advisory relationship with BearingPoint, to seamlessly adopt the rules and remain up-to-date.